Carolina Hiller-Donnelly is closing in on a lifelong dream of becoming a Canadian Olympian.
The Prince George product came up aces with a first-place finish on Saturday in the 500m event posting a time of 38.455 seconds at the 2026 Long Track Canada Cup and Olympic Skate-off in Quebec City.
Hiller-Donnelly finished ahead of Calgary’s Brooklyn McDougall, who came in 2nd.
“I don’t really have the words to express how I feel. The past four years I’ve been gearing towards this, and I’ve had the hardest year of my life in 2025, losing my mom at the end of March. One of the last things she told me was that I was going to go to the Olympics. I’ve just been holding onto that, and I felt her so much today in my preparation and on the ice. I can finally breath a sigh of relief and start preparing for Milan.” said Hiller-Donnelly post-race to Skate Canada.
Canada can only bring a maximum of eight women and seven men to Milano-Cortina 2026, and places on the respective Olympic Matrix are filled in a specific order, which was determined based on international results and rankings from the World Cup season.
The Canadian long track speed skating team for Milano-Cortina 2026 will not be made official until later this month.
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